The phase-out of leaded gasoline in the EU: a successful failure?

The objective of this paper is to analyze in both descriptive and econometr ic terms the phase-out of leaded gasoline consumption in the EU countries. The phase-out process is characterized by increased consumption of unleaded gasoline. We analyze the importance of price differences, share of catalyt ic converters, income per capita, and country characteristics in the phase- out process. Since the expected maintenance costs of using unleaded gasolin e in cars without catalytic converters compared to the use of leaded gasoli ne differ insignificantly according to available evidence, and consumers st ill use leaded gasoline even though unleaded gasoline is cheaper, we interp ret this as a lack of reliable information. The results indicate that count ries, which have not yet phased-out leaded gasoline, should do this by eith er banning leaded gasoline or use a larger tax differential complemented wi th information. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.